®p»pp-  - V ■ , :.,  . , u ‘'  fj 

101%™  ttkcts  |(m%nt  ffifagis. 

AN  ADDRESS 

BY  GEORGE  M.  WESTON,  OF  MAINE, 

DELIVERED  IN  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  MARCH  25,  1856. 


It  was  never  really  and  intseliip:d^^^c^§|| 
«d,  that  the  object  of  the  repeal  of  tTie  Missouri 
Compromise  was  to  extend  slavery  over  re- 
gions into  which,  under  that  Compromise,  it 
could  not  have  entered;  and  that  the  boun- 
daries of  Kansas  were  defined  expressly  and 
exclusively  in  aid  of  that  object. 

At  the  present  time,  it  is  hardly  thought 
worth  while  to  deny  what  events  have  made 
so  tin rnistak cable,  and  within  a few  days  a 
gentleman  on  the  floor  of  the  National  House 
of  Representatives,  occupying  relations  the 
most  intimate  and  confidential  with  the  men 
who  originated  the  revolutionary  legislation 
of  1854,  fully  and  fairly  avows  the  purposes 
they  had  in  view.  That  gentleman,  Mr.  Cad- 
walader,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  a speech  made 
©n  the  5th  of  March,  1856,  says: 

“ The  whole  of  what  is  now  comprised  under  the 
names  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  had,  until  1854, 
been  regarded  as  a single  Territory,  and  had  borne 
the  name  of  Nebraska.  * \ * * * * 

‘•The  greater  portion  of  Nebraska  comprising  not 
less  than  four-fifths  of  this  unorganized  territory, 
was  to  the  northward  of  40°,  and  therefore  probably 
not  open  to  settlement  by  slaveholders.  But  in 
Kansas,  occupying  the  space  between  40°  and  37°, 
there  was  at  least  the  probability  of  a partial  equiv- 
alent for  the  loss  by  the  slaveholding  States  of  a 
participation  in  the  beneficial  adjustment  of  the 
territory  on  the  Pacific. 

“Between  4010  and  the  latitude  of  the  southern 
boundary,  slavery  already  existed  in  Missouri, 
Virginia,  Kentucky,  Maryland  and  Delaware. 
North  of  40°  no  slaveholder  could  have  been  ex- 
pected to  establish  himself.  We  have  already  seen 
that  if  the  whole  had  formed  a single  Territory,  the 
area  of  the  portion  to  the  northward  of  40°  would 
have  been  about  four  times  that  of  the  portion  to 
the  southward.  Such  an  organization'  would  have 
been  a fraud  upon  the  slaveholding  States.  Emi- 
grants from  their  country  would  inevitably  have 
been  outnumbered  by  a majority  from  the  non-slave- 
hoidiag  country.” 

According  to  Mr.  Cadwalader,  than  whom 
nobody  is  better  entitled  to  speak  by  authori- 
ty, what  “ had,  until  1854,  been  regarded  as  a 
single  Territory ,”  was  not  organized  “ as  a sin- 
gle Territory for  the  reason  that  under  such 
an  organization,  slavery  would  have  been  ex- 
cluded from  it;  but  was  divided  into  two  ter- 
ritories. and  by  a line  which  secured  the  south- 
ern of  these  two  territories,  in  all  ordinary 
probability,  to  slavery.  In  adopting  this  line 
<nf  division,  no  regard  was  had  either  to  equal- 
ity of  area,  or  suitability  of  boundary.  Ne- 
braska was  made  four  times  as  large  as  Kansas. 
The  Platte  river  was  a natural  boundary,  but 
this  would  have  given  Kansas  a front  on  free 


S Ipwa  tOf.lialfia  degree.  The  northern  boundary 
of  Kansas  as  actually  fixed  is  half  a degree 
south  of  the  northern  boundary  of  Missouri,  so 
that  Missouri  covers  it  and  overlaps  it. 

The  object  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, as  always  apparent  and  now  avowed, 
was  then,  in  brief,  to  carry  slavery  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  north  of  the  parallel  of  36°  St/, 
into  the  latitudes  in  which  it  exists  in  Ken- 
tucky, Virginia,  Maryland  and  Delaware, 
east  of  the  Mississippi.  This  extension  of 
slavery  over  a belt  of  three  and  one-half 
degrees  of  latitude,  stretching  from  Missouri 
to  Oregon,  is  a large  question  in  geography, 
in  morals,  and  in  politics,  and  is  not  to  be 
concluded  by  a snap-judgment  here  or  else- 
where. No  larger  question  ever  appealed 
to  the  interests,  aroused  the  passions,  or  ad- 
dressed the  moral  convictions  of  this  nation. 
Uuder  our  form  of  government,  as  worked 
in  practice,  it  can  only  be  settled  by  a last 
and  final  appeal  to  the  collective  will  of  tho 
people,  made  effective  in  the  election  of  the 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Union.  To  this  ordeal 
it  must  come  at  last.  Great  hazards  have  been 
incurred,  and  alarming  animosities  have  been 
inflamed,  but  as  yet,  the  mischiefs  originated 
by  the  agitators  and  incendiaries  of  1854,  are 
not  irretrievable. 

What  is  proposed  to  be  done  by  the  men 
who  now  conduct  public  affairs,  is  to  give  a 
northerly  direction  to  the  development  of  the 
negro  race.  This  is  a new  policy.  It  is  a de- 
parture from  principles,  settled  upon  great 
consideration,  by  tbose  who  have  preceded 
us.  This  policy  is  not  necessarily  to  be  con- 
demned because  it  is  new,  but  it  is  an  innova- 
tion, and  is  not  to  be  received  with  favor  or 
partiality.  If  we  undo  the  work  of  our  fathers, 
it  should  be  for  substantial  reasons  and  for 
good  cause  shown.  The  maxim,  stare  decisis, 
imperative  in  the  judicial  forum,  is  weighty 
and  persuasive  in  the  political  forum.  The 
men  of  1820,  in  fixing  the  northern  limit  of 
slavery  in  the  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
adopted  a line  which  is  an  extension  of  the 
southern  boundary  of  Virginia,  Kentucky  and 
Missouri.  They  acted  upon  the  belief  that  its 
existence  in  those  States  was  nut  called  for  by 
their  climate  or  staples,  and  that  its  extension 
into  similar  latitudes,  under  national  authori- 
ty, should  be  forever  interdicted.  This  was 
the  judgment  of  the  men  of  1820,  which  they 
embodied  in  a solemn  and  memorable  settle- 
ment of  this  question,  aud  which,  during  an 


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entire  generation,  has  commanded  the  univer- 
sal assent  of  all  men  and  of  all  parties.  It  is 
now  proposed  to  reverse  this  judgment  of  our 
fathers,  to  undo  their  work,  and  to  carry  the 
negro  race  and  the  system  of  slavery  to  the 
north,  instead  of  pressing  them  southward. 

The  question  of  slavery  has  many  aspects, 
and  indeed,  is  inexhaustible  in  the  topics  which 
it  presents  for  discussion.  Upon  the  present 
occasion,  I propose  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  effects  likely  to  be  produced  upon  the  in- 
terests of  free  labor  in  the  northern  and  west- 
ern States,  and  upon  the  numbers  and  ultimate 
destiny  of  the  negro  race,  by  the  northerly  di- 
rection now  attempted  to  be  given  to  the  de- 
velopment of  that  race. 

In  the  present  age  of  free  commercial  inter- 
course, nations  have  a direct  and  immediate 
interest  in  the  productive  systems  of  each 
other ; an  interest,  however,  varying  with  their 
relative  positions. 

Thus,  New  England,  as  a matter  of  mere 
interest,  and  aside  from  considerations  of  gen- 
eral humanity  and  benevolence,  might  view 
with  indifference,  or  even  complacency,  an  or- 
ganization of  labor,  which,  however  wasteful 
of  life,  and  however  stained  with  cruelty,  yet 
enables  Cuba  and  other  tropical  regions,  to 
furnish  in  abundance  and  at  low  prices,  arti- 
cles of  which  she  is  a large  purchaser  and  con- 
sumer. In  this  case  New  England  does,  in 
fact,  share  the  profits  of  a sin,  without  sharing 
either  its  guilt,  or  its  dangers. 

New  England  cannot  view,  and  has  not 
viewed,  with  equal  complacency,  that  social 
organization  out  of  which  arises  what  is  called 
the  pauper  labor ” of  Europe.  She  feels  the 
pressure  of  it,  in  the  competition  of  commerce 
and  manufactures,  and  has  insisted  upon  pro- 
tection against  it  by  tariffs.  The  cheapness 
of  slave  labor  engaged  in  raising  sugar,  enures 
to  her  benefit;  the  cheapness  of  English  labor, 
engaged  in  manufacturing  cotton,  interferes 
in  the  markets  of  the  world  with  her  own 
productions. 

So  intimate,  indeed,  are  the  relations  of  even 
distant  nations  in  these  latter  days,  and  so 
wide-reaching  are  the  influences  of  modern 
commerce,  that  the  serf  system  of  eastern  Eu- 
rope is  felt  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan. 
The  grains  of  Podolia  and  the  Ukraine,  are 
produced  at  prices,  and  brought  to  Odessa  by 
methods  of  transportation,  impossible  if  labor 
was  paid,  and  sold  there  at  rates  which  affect 
the  markets  and  profits  of  the  farmers  of  Wis- 
consin. 

England  has  numerous  and  extensive  inter- 
tropical  colonies,  of  which  she  is,  indeed,  not 
merely  the  political  sovereign,  but  to  a large 
extent,  through  her  citizens,  the  proprietor. 
Negro  slavery  having  been  abolished  in  these 
colonies,  they  find  themselves,  it  is  said,  unable 
to  compete  with  other  tropical  regions  in 
which  negro  slavery  is  still  retained:  and  to 
this  fact,  rather  than  to  any  special  philan- 
thropy, many  attribute  the  efforts  of  England 
to  abolish  negro  slavery  elsewhere,  as  well  as 
in  her  own  colonies.  It  cannot  be  doubtful, 
that  such  considerations  do  somewhat  influ- 
ence the  present  policy  of  England,  but  at  the 


same  time,  it  would  be  most  uncandid  and  most 
ungenerous  to  deny,  that  the  voluntary  con- 
tribution by  the  British  people  of  twenty  mil- 
lions sterling,  towards  the  liberation  of  the 
black  race  in  their  colonies,  was  a great  and 
most  signal  act  of  humanity  and  benevolence. 
Let  it  be  conceded  even,  that  the  act  was  un- 
wise, and  that  its  consequences  have  been  dis- 
astrous; still,  of  unquestionable  purity  in  its 
motive,  and  elevated  even  to  sublimity  by  the 
sacrifices  it  involved,  it  must  ever  stand  an 
imperishable  monument  to  the  honor  of  the 
British  race,  and  indeed,  of  human  nature. 

Negro  slavery  being  established  in  fifteen 
of  the  States  of  this  Union,  whose  area  is 
851,508  square  miles,  while  the  area  of  the 
sixteen  free  States  is  only  612,591  square  miles, 
it  is  evident,  considering  the  absolute  freedom 
of  commercial  intercourse  between  the  States, 
that  that  system  of  labor  does,  or  may,  exert 
a decisive  and  controlling  influence  upon  the 
interests  of  free  labor.  That  it  does  so,  in  re- 
ference to  free  labor  within  the  slave  States 
themselves,  producing  a lamentable  degree  of 
degradation  among  the  poorer  whites,  is  quite 
notorious.  And  a little  examination  will  show, 
that  it  does  now  act  to  some  extent  in  the 
same  direction  upon  free  labor  in  the  free 
States,  and  that  under  certain  circumstances, 
its  further  action  in  that  direction  may  be- 
come most  serious. 

So  far  as  the  slave  labor  of  the  southern 
States  has  been  directed,  as  it  mainly  has  been 
in  times  past,  to  the  production  of  cotton,  to- 
bacco, rice  and  sugar — it  is  not  easy  to  per- 
ceive, that  the  northern  laborer  has  been  oth- 
erwise than  benefrtted  by  it,  in  the  cheapening 
of  those  important  and  essential  articles  of 
universal  consumption.  Indeed,  southern  wri- 
ters affirm,  with  no  little  petulance,  that  their 
slaves  have  worked  heretofore  for  the  north, 
and  that  it  would  be  for  the  interest  of  the 
south  and  a just  punishment  for  the  abolition- 
ists, to  work  them  hereafter,  to  some  extent, 
ayainst  the  north,  in  factories,  in  which,  it  is 
well  established,  that  the  negro  is  a servicea- 
able  laborer. 

So  far  as  this  is  threatened  as  a mere  matter 
of  retaliatian  against  the  north,  we  need  attach 
little  importance  to  it.  It  has  been  well  said, 
that  men  resort  to  hard  words  and  sometimes 
to  hard  blows,  but  never  build  houses,  in  a 
passion.  If  the  southern  slaves  are  ever  work- 
ed largely  in  factories,  it  will  not  be  out  of 
hostility  to  the  north,  but  because,  with  in- 
creasing density  of  population,  such  a diver- 
sion of  a portion  of  them  from  agriculture 
may  be  found  profitable.  Such  a contingency 
is  neither  distant  or  improbable,  and  it  be- 
hooves the  north  to  look  the  approaching  evil 
fairly  in  the  lace.  Some  means  may,  perhaps, 
be  found  to  avert  it,  and  even  if  it  be  inevita- 
ble, it  is  no  part  of  manly  wisdom  to  shut  our 
eyes  to  it. 

In  considering  this  matter,  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served, that  the  expense  of  the  labor  of  slaves 
consists  of  two  parts;  the  hire  paid  to  the 
owners,  and  the  cost  of  supporting  and  man- 
aging the  slaves  themselves.  The  first  item, 
that  of  the  hire  paid  to  the  owners,  is  at  tliU 


3 


time  exceedingly  high.  It  may  be  supposed 
to  bear  a proportion  to  the  market  price  of 
slaves,  which  has  greatly  increased  of  late 
years,  being  now  six  times  as  great  as  it  was 
in  1790.  This  item  is  to  be  reckoned,  even 
where  slaves  are  worked  by  their  owners,  be- 
cause they  thereby  forego  what  they  would 
receive  by  hiring  them  out.  What  may  oe 
the  future  course  of  the  prices  of  slaves,  is  a 
matter  of  uncertainty,  and  will  depend  upon 
events.  The  received  opinion  is,  both  at  the 
north  and  south,  that  with  increasing  num- 
bers, their  market  value  will  fall,  and  this 
must  certainly  happen,  unless  either  a more 
considerable  proportion  of  them  be  diverted 
to  mining  and  manufacturing,  or  unless  the 
agricultural  area  upon  which  they  are  worked 
is  constantly  enlarged.  There  are  no  pruden- 
tial checks  operating  to  restrain  the  expansion 
of  that  species  of  population,  and  in  the  end, 
their  labor  must,  in  the  circumstances  suppo- 
sed, be  obtainable  at  the  cost,  or  possibly  a 
little  more  than  the  cost,  of  supporting  and 
governing  them.  To  this  complexion  it  must 
come  at  last. 

Just  in  proportion  as  the  two  systems  of 
labor,  slave  and  free,  come  in  contact  with 
each  other  by  being  directed  to  the  same  pur- 
suits, just  in  that  proportion  must  the  free 
laborers  of  the  North  and  West  be  brought 
within  the  range  of  that  fatal  influence,  which 
now  acts  with  direct  and  unmitigated  force 
upon  the  great  mass  of  the  whites  at  the  South. 

In  his  essay  upon  Manufactures  in  the  South 
and  West,  Mr.  Tarver  of  Missouri,  says: 

“ Without  entering  into  a comparison  of  the  pre- 
sent nominal  price  of  labor  in  this  and  other  coun- 
tries, it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  whatever  the  price 
may  be,  none  can  produce  any  given  article  as  cheap 
with  hired  labor,  as  he  who  owns  it  himself.  In  the 
latter  case  the  labor  is  so  much  capital  in  hand,  and 
it  is  not  so  much  a question  with  the  owner  whether 
he  can  produce  a yard  of  cloth,  or  any  other  given 
article,  as  low  as  it  can  be  produced  in  England,  or 
in  Massachusetts,  but  whether  by  applying  his  labor 
to  the  production  of  the  cloth,  or  other  article,  he 
can  make  it  more  profitable  than  he  can  by  using  it 
in  agriculture.  It  matters  nothing  to  him  how  low 
others  can  produce  the  article;  he  can  produce  it 
lower  still  so  long  as  it  is  the  best  use  that  he  can  make 
of  his  labor , and  so  long  as  his  labor  is  worth  keeping. 
It  is  upon  this  principle,  that  the  Southwest  is  des- 
tined to  monopolize  the  manufacture  of  the  whole 
cotton  crop  of  the  United  States.” 

The  slave  owner  and  the  free  laborer,  so  far 
as  they  are  engaged  in  producing  the  same 
articles,  being  direct  competitors  with  each 
other,  and  the  power  of  the  slave  owner  to  sus- 
tain this  competition  being  regulated  and 
measured  by  the  rate  at  which  his  slaves  can 
be  maintained  in  a condition  of  efficiencjr ; it 
becomes  important  to  have% clear  and  exact 
ideas  as  to  what  this  rate'actually  is.  \ No 
question  can  be  more  interesting,  than  that  of 
the  true  cost  of  a species  of  labor,  which  does 
how  actually  control  the  condition  of  the  non- 
property holding  whites  of  the  South,  and 
which  may  hereafter  regulate  the  wages  of 
the  workingmen  of  the  North  and  West. 

In  De  Bow's  Industrial  Resources  of  the 
South  and  West,  volume  1,  page  150,  will  be 
found  an  estimate  by  ‘‘  a practical  cotton  planter 


of  Louisiana ,”  of  the  following  items  of  ex- 
pense, on  a cotton  plantation  with  100  slaves: 

Medicines,  Doctor’s  bills,  &c $250.00 

To  clothe  100  slaves,  shoe  them,  furnish 
bedding,  sacks  for  gathering  corn,  &c. . . 750.00 

A writer  in  the  Carolinian  newspaper,  quo- 
ted in  the  same  work  of  De  Bow,  vol.  1,  page 
161,  gives  the  following  statement  of  certain 
items  of  expense,  on  a plantation  with  forty 
slaves : 

Medicine  and  medicinal  attendance $30.00 


Blankets,  30  in  number,  at  $1.12)4  each. . . . 33.75 

Shoes,  25  pairs,  at  $1.25  per  pair 31.25 

Cotton  osnaburgs,  300  yards,  at  3 cents  per 

yard 24.00 

Sait,  6 sacks,  at  $2.00  each 12.00 

Sugar  and  coffee  for  sick,  75  lbs.,  at  10  cents 
per  lb 7.50 


It  is  "stated  in  reference  to  this  plantation, 
that  “ the  winter  but  not  summer  clothing  was 
manufactured  at  the  place.”  There  are  no  other 
items  in  the  account,  of  expense  incurred  in 
feeding,  or  clothing  the  slaves.  The  items 
put  down  amount  to  $138.25,  being  $3.46  to 
each  slave. 

Solon  Robinson,  quoted  in  the  same  work 
of  De  Bow,  gives  the  following  items  of  the 
expense  of  supporting  254  slaves,  independent 
of  the  food  raised '-by  themselves,  on  Colonel 
Williams’  plantation,  Society  Hill,  S.  C.: 


Medical  attendance,  $1.25  per  head $317.50 

200  pairs  of  shoes 175.00 

Annual  supply  of  hats 100.00 

Bill  of  cotton  and  woollen  cloth 810.00 

100  cotton  comforters,  in  lieu  of  bed  blan- 
kets  125.00 


100  oii-clothe  capotes  (New- York  cost) ....  87.50 

Calico  dress  and  handkerchief  for  each  wo- 
man and  girl  (extra  of  other  clothing).. . 82.00 

Christmas  presents,  friven  in  lieu  of  “ ne- 


gro crop.” 175.00 

50  sacks  of  salt 30.00 

400  gallons  of  molasses 100.00 

3 kegs  tobacco,  $30  ; 2 bbls.  flour  $10 70.00 


2,122.00 

This  makes  an  average  of  $8.35  to  each  slave. 

Mr.  Robinson  gives  also,  the  following  items 
of  expense  on  the  plantation  of  Robert  Mon- 
tague,' Esq.,  Alabama,  with  one  hundred  and 
twenty  slaves  : 

Medical  bill,  average,  not  exceeding $ 40.00 

Blankets,  hats  and  shoes  (other  clothing  all 
homemade) 250.00 

A “ Mississippi  Planter”  (Indust.  Resources, 
vol.  2,  page  331,)  says: 

“ I allow  for  each  hand  that  works  out,  four 
pounds  of  clear  meat,  and  one  peck  of  meal  per 
week.” 

Another  writer  on  the  u Management  of  Ne- 
groes? (Ind.  Resources,  vol.  2,  page  333,)  says : 

“ What  is  sufficient  food  ? For  as  there  is  a dif- 
ference in  practice,  there  must  be  also  in  opinion 
among  owners.  The  most  common  practice  is  to 
allow  each  hand  that  labors,  whether  man,  woman, 
or  child,  (for  a boy  or  girl  ten  years  old  or  over;  who 
is  heaitny  and  growing  rapidly,  will  eat  quite  as 
much  as  a lull  grown  man  or  woman,)  three  and 
a-haif  pounds  bacon,  if  middling,  or  four  pounds  if 
shoulder,  per  week,  and  bread  at  wrill ; or  if  allow- 
anced in  this  also,  a peck  of  meal  is  usually  thought 
sufficient.  With  plenty  of  vegetables,  this  allow- 
ance is  quite  sufficient;  but  if  confined  to  meat  and 
bread,  negroes  who  work  hard  will  eat  a peck  and 
a-halt  of  meal  per  week.” 

A “ Small  Farmer,”  (Industrial  Resources, 
vol.  2,  page  336,)  says: 


A 


“ I think  four  pounds  of  clear  meat  [per  week] 
is  too  much.  I have  negroes  here  that  have  had 
only  half  a pound  [per  day]  each  for  twenty  years, 
and  they  bid  fair  to  outlive  their  master.” 

A “ Virginian ” from  Matthews  County,  has 
furnished  estimates  for  the  Albany  Cultivator, 
which  I find  quoted  in  the  Review  for  the 
South  and  West,  vol.  3,  page  271.  He  esti- 
mates clothing  and  taxes  for  twenty  field 
hands,  men,  women  and  boys,  at  ten  dollars, 
and  their  food  at  twenty  dollars,  each  per 
annum. 

In  an  Address  delivered  before  the  South 
Carolina  Institute,  in  1850,  Gov.  Hammond 
says : 

“Our  Northern  brethren  have  one,  to  mention 
only  one,  fatal  and  ominous  disqualification  for  car- 
rying such  a contest  [with  Great  Britain  lor  manu- 
facturing supremacy]  to  extremes.  With  them, 
owing  to  their  social  and  political  condition,  the 
tendency  of  wages  is  constantly  to  rise.  If  they  are 
lowered  much,  or  lowered  long,  the  security  of  pro- 
perty is  at  an  end.  They  can  substitute  no  labor 
for  that  which  is  virtually  entitled  to  suffrage,  and 
their  governments,  controlled  by  those  who  live  by 
wages,  have  no  power  to  protect  capital  against  the 
demands  of  labor,  however  unjust.  In  the  South, 
it  is  wholly  different.  * * * The  great  item  of  cost 
in  manufacturing,  next  to  the  raw  material,  is  that 
of  labor.  And  the  final  result  of  the  great  struggle 
for  the  control  and  enjoyment  of  the  most  important 
industrial  pursuit  of  the  world,  will  probably  depend 
on  its  comparative  cheapness.  * * * * in  England, 
factory  labor  is  now  limited  by  law  to  sixty  hours  a 
week.  In  our  Northern  States,  the  average  of  availa- 
ble weekly  labor  is  estimated  at  seventy-three  and  a 
half  hours.  * * * The  steady  heat  of  our  summers 
is  not  so  prostrating  as  the  short,  but  frequent  bursts 
of  northern  summers.  If  driven  to  that  necessity, 
there  is  no  doubt  we  can  extend  our  hours  of  labor  be- 
yond any  of  our  rivals.  The  necessary  expenses  of 
the  Southern  laborer  are  not  near  so  great  as  those  of 
one  in  Northern  latitudes.  Corn  and  bread  and 
bacon,  as  much  as  the  epicure  may  sneer  at  them, 
with  fresh  meat  only  occasionally^,  and  a moderate 
use  of  garden  vegetables,  will,  in  this  region  at  least, 
give  to  the  laborer  greater  strength  of  muscle  and 
constitution, enable  him  to  undergo  more  fatigue, and 
insure  him  longer  life  and  more  enjoyment  of  it, 
than  any  other  diet.  And  these,  indeed,  with  coffee, 
constitute  the  habitual  food  of  the  great  body  of  the 
Southern  people.  Thirteen  bushels  of  corn,  worth 
now,  even  in  the  Atlantic  Southern  States  only 
about  $8  on  the  average,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  of  bacon,  or  its  equivalent,  worth  about  $9, 
is  an  ample  yearly  allowance  for  a grown  person. 
Garden  vegetables  bear  no  price  except  in  cities. 
If  sugar  and  coffee  be  added,  $18,  or  at  most,  $19, 
will  cover  the  whole  necessary  annual  cost  of  a full 
supply  of  wholesome  and  palatable  food,  purchased 
in  the  market.  * * * * 

In  an  article  upon  u Sugar  Culture  in  the 
West  Indies  ” (Industrial  Resources,  volume  3, 
page  310,)  there  is  given  a detailed  account 
of  the  operations  of  a sugar  estate  in  Cuba, 
in  1846,  with  310  negroes.  Among  the  ex- 
penses are  the  following,  and  they  are  all 
which  relate  to  the  support  of  the  negroes : 
Annual  consumption  of  meat  for  310  ne- 
groes, 140  lbs  , at  $6  per  100  lbs $2,604.00 

Annual  consumption  of  corn,  325  lbs.  per 

day,  at  $1.20  per  100  lbs 1,423.50 

300  mule  loads  of  plantains  at  75  cents.. . 600.00 

Clothing  at  $3.50  per  head 1,035. 00 

Salary  of  physician 510.00 

Minor  expenses,  including  the  hospital 
and  medicine  bill 2,143.00 

$8,335.50 

It  does  not  appear  how  much  of  this  last 
item  should  be  set  down  to  the  account  of  the 
negroes,  but  including  the  whole  of  it,  the 


average  amount  expended  for  the  food,  cloth- 
ing and  medical  attendance  of  each  negro  is 
only  twenty-six  dollars  and  ninety-eight  and 
one-half  cents. 

In  an  account  of  another  sugar  plantation 
in  Cuba,  given  by  Dr.  Wurdeman,  the  clothing 
and  food  for  the  negroes  are  set  down  at  two 
dollars  each  per  annum,  without  giving  the 
items,  and  the  physician's  bill  is  put  down  at 
two  dollars  each  per  annum. 

This  whole  question  of  the  cost  of  support- 
ing slaves,  both  as  a matter  of  fact,  and  a 
matter  of  theory,  is  summed  up  by  Chancellor 
Harper  of  South  Carolina,  in  his  li  Memoir 
upon  Negro  Slavery ,"  in  the  following  language: 

“If  the  income  of  every  planter  of  the  South- 
ern States  were  permanently  reduced  one-half,  or 
much  more  than  that,  it  would  not  take  one  jot  from 
the  support  and  comforts  of  the  slaves.  And  this 
can  never  be  materially  altered  until  they  shall  be- 
come so  unprofitable  that  slavery  must  of  necessity 
be  abandoned.” 

From  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  owners  of 
slaves  only  furnish  that  degree  and  amount  of 
support  which  are  necessary  to  maintain  their 
efficiency  and  numbers.  They  cannot  do  less 
than  this,  if  their  incomes  are  diminished ; 
they  will  not  do  more,  if  their  incomes  are 
doubled.  There  is  no  possibility  of  retrench- 
ment, where  economy  has  already  done  its 
most  and  its  worst. 

The  housing  of  the  negro  is  upon  the  same 
scale  as  his  food  and  clothing.  The  negro 
cabin  hardly  figures  at  all  in  the  inventories 
of  plantation  stock. 

Nothing  being;  expended  upon  the  education 
or  pleasures  of  the  negro ; and  both  sexes  and 
nearly  all  ages  being  made  available  for  work ; 
the  cheapness  of  slave  labor  is  abundantly 
apparent.  A woman  is  worth  in  the  field 
about  two-thirds  as  much  as  a man,  and 
'■'■when  a breeding  woman  gets  too  heavy  to  go  to 
the  field, ^she  may  be  made  otherwise  useful, 
as  explained  by  Southern  writers  upon  Rural 
Economy,  (see  Industrial  Resources,  volume  3, 
page  334.)  The  farmers  and  mechanics  of  the 
North  and  West  support  their  families  as  well 
as  themselves ; they  are  not  content  to  have 
their  wives  follow  the  plough  ; and  they  have 
children  at  school  to  feed  and  clothe.  All  this 
most  be  changed,  when  they  are  brought  fairly 
within  the  range  of  the  competition  of  the 
slave  owner. 

Of  the  six  hundred  and  seventy-three 
thousand  bales  of  cotton  manufactured  in  the 
United  States,  as  appears  by  document  57,  ap- 
pended to  the  last  annual  report  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  eighty  thousand  were 
manufactured  during  the  last  year,  u South  and 
West  of  Virginia and  mainly,  it  is  presumed, 
by  slave  labor.  Jt  is  not  understood  that  the 
amount  of  slave  labor  so  employed  has  much 
increased  within  four  or  five  years  past;  such 
increase  being  prevented  by  the  advancing 
rates  of  the  hire  of  negroes  for  agricultural 
purposes.  The  experiment,  however,  has  been 
tried  long  enough,  and  upon  a scale  large 
enough,  to  demonstrate  the  adaptation  of  that 
species  of  labor  to  factories,  aud  it  only  needs 
a turn  of  events,  a change  of  price  in  some  of 
the  products  of  agriculture,  to  precipitate  that 


^ I 


5 


extensive  appropriation  of  it  to  such  and  sim- 
ilar employments,  which  is  sure  to  come,  sooner 
or  later,  with  the  increasing  numbers  of  the 
enslaved  race.  The  time  predicted  by  Mr.  Tar- 
ver, when  the  Southwest  will  u monopolize” 
the  cotton  manufacture  of  the  United  States 
may  never  come;  but  it  is  no  idle  speculation 
to  'suppose,  that  in  this  branch  of  industry, 
the  free  laborer  may  soon  begin  sensibly  to  feel 
the  competing  pressure  of  the  slave  owner. 

Another  matter,  not  more  certain,  but  estab- 
lished by  a longer  experience  and  more  uni- 
versally acknowledged  to  be  true,  is  the  supe- 
rior cheapness  of  the  enslaved  negro  in  the 
simpler  operations  of  agriculture,  in  any  lati- 
tude in  which  the  black  race  will  thrive,  over 
any  species  of  free  labor.  Conceding  the  full 
force  of  the  fact,  that  wages  are  a better  stimu- 
lus to  industry  than  the  lash,  it  is  still  im- 
possible for  the  free  laborer  to  maintain  the 
contest  with  a race,  so  hardy  in  their  own 
proper  climate,  so  docile,  and  so  cheaply  sup- 
ported. Dr.  Franklin  invited  his  enemy  to 
dine  with  him,  and  after  sharing  with  him  a 
bowl  of  milk,  admonished  him  that  one  able 
to  live  always  with  such  simplicity,  was  not 
easily  to  be  got  rid  of  as  a competitor  in  busi- 
ness. The  slave  owners  of  the  South  may, 
with  equal  triumph,  point  the  whole  world  to 
the  bill  of  fare  of  their  laborers,  and  exult 
with  Gov.  Hammond,  that  they  can  outwork 
even  the  u pauper  labor”  of  Europe. 

In  contrasting  free  labor  with  slave  labor, 
and  claiming  superiority  for  the  former  over 
the  latter,  we  naturally  think  of  free  labor  as 
it  actually  exists  at  the  Horth  and  West,  where 
it  is  educated  and  intelligent.  But  free  labor 
is  not  necessarily  either,  nor  is  it  in  fact  either, 
except  under  the  condition  of  being  fairly 
paid.  When  its  remuneration  is  lowered  by 
successive  gradations,  as  it  must  be  when  ex- 
posed to  the  competition  of  slave  labor,  the 
freeman  ceases  to  be  educated,  or  intelligent, 
or  to  have  any  superiority  to  the  negro  except 
that  of  race.  And  this  point  is  reached  con- 
siderably before  wages  sink  to  the  equivalent 
of  the  support  required  by  the  slave,  because 
slavery,  with  all  its  faults  and  mischiefs,  does 
yet  save  its  subjects  by  the  strong  hand  of 
coercion  from  many  vices  which  waste  the 
means  and  energies  of  the  freeman.  It  is  of 
no  avail,  therefore,  that  educated  and  intelli- 
gent free  labor  may  bean  overmatch  for  slave 
labor,  because  in  truth,  educated  and  intelli- 
gent free  labor  cannot  coexist  with  slavery, 
slave  labor  wins  the  victory,  not  merely  by 
its  own  strength,  but  by  weakening  and  de- 
teriorating free  labor. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  wealth  is  more 
rapidly  augmented  under  free,  than  under 
slave  systems,  and  that,  in  a large  sense,  free 
labor  is  cheaper  than  slave  labor.  The  reduc- 
tion of  the  laborer  to  the  minimum  of  physical 
subsistence,  is  the  philosophy  of  Gov.  Ham- 
mond and  of  the  South.  A better  philosophy, 
even  for  capital,  is  to  pay  the  laborer  a rate  of 
wages  which  will  uphold  his  self-respect  and 
educate  his  family.  Slave  labor,  like  many 
other  cheap  things,  is  dear  in  the  end.  But  al- 
though exhausting  and  impoverishing  in  all 


its  results  and  all  its  influences,  it  is  irresisti- 
bly and  unmistakably  cheaper,  when  applied 
to  the  ruder  processes  of  agriculture,  than  free 
labor,  which  it  overpowers  and  reduces  to  its 
own  level.  This  gift  of  cheapness,  which  is 
its  only  recommendation,  is,  in  truth,  its  most 
fatal  characteristic,  because  cheap  labor  im- 
plies an  uneducated  laborer,  general  ignorance, 
an  absence  of  the  arts  and  universal  impov- 
erishment. In  the  energetic  language  made 
use  of  in  1832  by  Hon.  C.  J.  Faulkner,  a mem- 
ber of  the  present  Congress  from  Virginia,  uit 
banishes  free  white  labor ; it  exterminates  the  me- 
chanic, the  artisan , the  manufacturer ; it  deprives 
them  of  occupation;  it  deprives  them  of  bread; 
it  converts  the  energy  of  a community  into  indo- 
lence; its  power  into  imbecility;  its  efficiency  into 
weakness.” 

Whether  or  not  it  be,  as  Gov.  Hammond 
supposes,  ua  fatal  and  ominous  disqualification  ” 
that  the  governments  of  the  Northern  and 
Western  States  are  “ controlled  by  those  who 
live  by  wages,”  and  that  under  their  “ social 
and  political  condition , the  tendency  of  wages  is 
constantly  to  rise,”  while  11  in  the  South  it  is 
wholly  different;”  it  is  nevertheless  the  system 
and  condition  under  which  we  choose  to  live, 
and  which  we  are  bound  to  protect  against 
the  inevitable  and  eternal  antagonism  of  slave 
labor.  In  human  affairs,  the  final  arbitrament 
is  that  of  power,  and  if  the  philosophy  of  the 
South  was  as  sound,  as  it  seems  to  us  to  be 
false  and  shallow,  it  wrould  still  be  a question 
of  opposing  interests,  and  the  weaker  must 
go  to  the  wall.  The  system  of  reducing  the 
laborer  to  a bare  subsistence,  is  hostile  to  the 
individual  and  personal  w'ell-being  of  thegreat 
mass  of  the  fifteen  millions  of  people  who  wield 
the  political  control  of  the  free  States;  and  it 
will  be  passing  strange  if  they  do  not  so  wield 
it  as  to  protect  themselves  and  their  own. 

If  slavery  was  removed  to  the  extreme 
South,  and  confined  to  cotton,  sugar  and  rice, 
it  would,  at  any  rate,  not  oppress  white  labor 
by  its  disastrous  competition.  But  in  the 
Northern  slave  States,  it  is  directed  to  the  same 
agricultural  productions  as  in  the  free  States. 
The  white  free  man  in  Pennsylvania,  who 
raises  wheat,  works  against  the  black  slave  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia  who  does  the  same 
thing.  The  producers  of  pork  and  corn  at  the 
West,  encounter  a similar  competition  in  Ken- 
tucky and  Missouri.  At  a period  of  high 
prices,  under  which  the  owmer  of  the  slave 
receives  a large  hire  for  him,  and  under  which 
the  free  laborer  receives  large  wages,  this  com- 
petition is  not  felt,  and  perhaps  not  thought 
of.  But  the  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Missouri 
owners  of  slaves  must  work  them  when  prices 
fall,  and  the  free  laborers  of  the  adjoining 
States  will  then  realize  the  full  severity  of 
slave  competition. 

A correspondent  of  the  St.  Louis  Republi- 
can, writing  from  Pike  county,  Missouri,  ad- 
joining Illinois,  and  only  separated  from  it  by 
the  Mississippi  river,  gives  the  following  ac- 
count of  the  rates  at  which  negroes  were  sold 
and  hired  there  on  the  1st  day  of  January, 
1856:— 


i 


‘Mr.  Editor: — Negro  men  sold  on  yesterday  at 
the  following  prices:  $1,365,  $1,54*2,  $1,403,  $1,215, 
$1,275.  These  men  were  common  crop  hands,  rang- 
ing from  30  to  45  years  of  age.  W omen  brought 
from  eight  to  nine  hundred  dollars,  and  one  went 
as  high  as  $1,040  ; another  as  high  as  $1 ,753.  These 
two  last  good  "house  servants  and  seamstresses.  The 
women  bringing  $800  and  $900  were  over  middle  age. 

“ While  negroes  sold  for  these  prices,  they  hired 
at  corresponding  rates.  Common  farm  hands,  young 
and  likely,  hired  for  $220  to  $232;  boys  of  15  and  17 
years  of  age,  or  thereabouts,  hired  for  $140  and  $150 
— in  every  instance  the  individual  hiring,  and  not 
the  owner,  paying  all  charges  of  every  description.” 

With  these  rates  of  negro  hire  in  Missouri, 
the  farmers  and  laborers  of  Iowa  and  Illinois, 
who  own  themselves,  may  receive  good  wages. 
But  such  rates  cannot  be  permanent,  and  when 
they  fall,  the  wages  of  adjacent  free  labor  must 
fall  in  a corresponding  ratio. 

Over  slavery  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  the 
nation  has  not  now,  and  never  had,  any  con- 
trol, and  the  evil  is  easier  borne,  because  we 
may  feel  that  we  did  not  cause  it  by  our  own 
act  or  neglect.  The  Pennsylvania  laborer, 
who  now  encounters  the  competition  of  Vir- 
ginia blacks  in  producing  wheat,  and  who 
will  encounter  it  in  producing  coal  and  iron, 
may  console  himself  that  the  mischief  is  not 
imputable,  either  to  himself,  or  to  his  fathers. 
It  is  not  so  in  the  case  of  Missouri,  where,  if 
the  North  and  West  had  exhibited  more  firm- 
ness in  1820,  there  would  not  now  be  a single 
slave.  Or  even  if  the  men  of  that  day  had 
insisted  upon  the  least  restrictive  of  the  two 
measures  proposed,  and  had  prohibited  the 
further  immigration  of  slaves  into  Missouri ; 
the  ten  thousand  then  there  would,  at  the 
most,  have  grown  to  twenty  thousand  by 
natural  increase,  instead  of  being,  as  they  ac- 
tually are,  one  hundred  thousand  by  natural 
increase  and  importation.  Something  would 
have  been  gained,  if  the  Northern  boundary 
of  Missouri  had  been  pushed  South  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Missouri  river.  As  it  is,  slavery 
is  carried  up  to  the  latitude  of  40°  30/,  where, 
on  any  view  of  the  subject,  it  has  no  right  to 
go. 

In  concluding  this  branch  of  the  discussion, 
it  is  not  inappropriate  to  observe  that  in  many 
of  the  States  in  which  the  system  of  peniten- 
tiaries exists,  very  considerable  objection  has 
been  made  to  the  employment  of  their  inmates 
in  trades  and  handicrafts,  in  which  they  would 
compete  with  honest  citizens.  In  some  of  the 
States,  if  parties  have  not  been  formed  upon 
this  question,  certainly  candidates  for  office 
have  been  interrogated  in  reference  to  it,  and 
it  has  entered  as  an  active  element  into  the 
popular  elections  If  this  jealousy  on  the  part 
of  workingmen  of  the  competition  of  a few 
hundred  persons  condemned  to  penal  servi- 
tude, was  natural  and  justifiable,  an  occa- 
sion for  it  immeasurably  greater  exists  in  the 
competition  of  the  three  millions  of  persons 
condemned  to  perpetual  servitude  in  the  South- 
ern States. 

I have  thus  far  endeavored  to  satisfy  you, 
that  the  attempt  being  made  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  dynasty  now  in  power,  to  bring 
slavery  northward,  will,  if  successful,  depress 
and  degrade  the  free  labor  of  the  North  and 
West,  by  subjecting  it  to  slave  competition  in 


the  production  of  the  same  staples.  I will 
now  endeavor  to  satisfy  you  that  this  north- 
ward direction  of  slavery,  if  not  arrested  and 
prevented,  must  result  in  a marked  incre/ise  of 
the  aggregate  of  slaves,  and  must  thereby 
enlarge  an  evil  already  so  gigantic  as  to  seem 
hopeless  and  irremediable. 

Certainly,  it  can  require  no  elaboration  of 
reasoning,  to  demonstrate  the  wisdom  of  con- 
fining the  blacks  to  those  latitudes  least  favora- 
ble to  the  increase  of  the  human  species,  so  as 
to  give  the  greatest  scope  for  the  expansion  of 
the  superior  race  of  the  whites.  Above  a cer- 
tain parallel  of  latitude,  which  most  writers 
fix  at  35°,  the  tendency  of  the  species  is  to  in- 
crease until  the  utmost  possible  limit  of  sub- 
sistence is  reached ; while  below  it,  numbers 
are  kept  down  by  tropical  diseases,  w here  the 
means  of  subsistence  seem  to  be  illimitable. 
Precisely  where  the  line  is  may  be  doubtful — 
but  its  existence  is  certain.  The  temperate 
North  has  always  been  the  hive  of  nations ; 
officina gentium.  If  the  subject  of  negro  slavery 
in  this  Union  had  been  within  the  scope  of 
national  authority,  and  if  that  authority  had 
been  exercised  with  any  tolerable  discretion, 
the  black  race  would  now  be  small  in  num- 
bers, and  confined  to  pursuits  to  which  white 
labor  does  not  appear  to  be  adapted.  As  it  is, 
the  fecundity  of  the  negro  has  been  aided  and 
stimulated  by  the  admirable  climates  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and  it  is  at 
this  day  doubtful,  whether  we  are  not  about 
to  commit  as  a crime  West  of  the  Mississippi, 
what  we  have  suffered  as  a misfortune  East  of 
it;  whether  we  are  not  about  to  permit  there 
under  national  license  and  authority,  what  has 
been  forced  upon  us  here  by  the  coercion  of 
State  sovereignty;  the  appropriation  of  the 
finest  regions  and  the  most  salubrious  cli- 
mates to  the  growth  and  expansion  of  a race, 
which  is  the  shame  and  scandal  and  weakness 
of  our  country. 

It  has  been  shown  [see  H.  C.  Carey  on  the 
Slave  Trade,  Domestic  and  Foreign,]  that 
wrhereas  only  660,000  slaves  were  found  in  the 
British  West  India  Islands  and  Colonies  in 
the  tropical  regions  of  South  America  at  the 
period  of  emancipation,  2,000,000  of  blacks 
had  been  imported  into  those  possessions  at 
various  times  from  Africa.  All  the  natural 
increase  and  two- thirds  of  the;  original  im- 
portation had  disappeared.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  slave  colonies  of  France  and 
Spain  in  the  same  latitudes.  These  results 
are  doubtless  attributable,  in  part,  to  the  lack 
of  females  among  the  negroes  brought  from 
Africa,  and  in  part,  perhaps,  to  a treatment 
less  humane  than  is  experienced  by  the  black 
race  in  this  country.  But,  after  all,  they  are 
mainly  attributable  to  climate. 

This  is  illustrating  a principle  by  an  ex- 
treme case.  There  is  no  part  of  this  Union 
where  any  such  destruction  of  the  black  race, 
as  has  been  witnessed  in  the  West  India  Is- 
lands, is  likely  to  occur,  even  if  such  a catas- 
trophe could  be  regarded  as  desirable.  But  it 
is  certain,  that  the  fine  and  healthy  regions  of 
Virginia  are  the  breeding  grounds  which  sup- 
ply laborers  for  the  sugar  plantations  of  Lou- 


i 


7 


i 


isiana;  it  is  certain  that  the  natural  increase 
of  the  blacks  is  much  more  rapid  in  the  North- 
ern slave  States  than  in  the  extreme  South; 
it  is  certain,  in  fine,  that  just  in  proportion  as 
we  crowd  slavery  toward  the  tropic,  we  shall 
diminish  the  number,  or  at  least  retard  the 
increase  of  the  number,  of  the  blacks.  The 
sugar  regions  alone,  of  Florida,  Louisiana  and 
Texas,  are  sufficient  to  absorb  them,  and  this 
is  the  true  euthanasia  of  slavery.  It  was  this 
view  of  the  subject  which  reconciled  the  North 
to  the  annexation  of  Texas.  In  truth  the 
question  of  slavery,  except  in  reference  to  the 
balance  of  political  power,  was  not  involved 
in  that  measure,  slavery  being  already  firmly 
established  in  Texas.  But  so  far  as  the 
question  of  the  extension  and  direction  of 
slavery  was  supposed  to  be  involved,  or 
might  possibly  be  involved  in  that  measure, 
the  people  of  the  North  were  well  content  to 
aid  in  giving  a Southern  direction  to  slavery. 
Such  a line  of  policy  accorded  with  their  old 
and  established  opinions ; it  accorded  with 
the  ideas  which  led  to  the  adoption  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise;  it  accorded,  indeed, 
with  w Inlt  was  until  recently  the  general  ex- 
pectation and  wish  of  the  country,  that  sla- 
very would  disappear  from  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky  and  Missouri.  The  legisla- 
tion of  1854,  revolutionary  in  its  inception,  in 
the  practices  by  which  it  was  carried  through 
Congress,  and  in  the  incidents  which  have  at- 
tended its  execution,  runs  counter  to  all  the 
old,  established  and  well  settled  opinions  of 
the  country,  North  and  South.  It  is  an  olf- 
shoot  of  violent  and  dangerous  veiws  of 
modern  growth.  It  contemplates  a complete 
reversal  of  the  entire  policy  of  our  govern- 
ment from  its  foundation.  It  proposes  to  push 
North  as  far  as  it  can  possibly  exist  and  with 
a yiew  to  its  indefinite  duration  and  ascen- 
dancy, an  odious  and  fatal  institution,  which 
our  fathers  through  nearly  three  generations 
have  systematically  labored  to  narrow,  to  limit, 
and  especially  to  divert  Southward  with  a 
view  to  its  ultimate  and  possible  extinction. 

If  the  negro  race  was  actually  established  in 
Kansas,  its  removal  South  might  be  objected 
to  as  inhumane.  But  in  determining  with 
which  of  two  races  we  will  people  a new  and 
unoccupied  region,  we  are  unembarrassed  with 
any  such  consideration  as  that.  We  are  not 
perplexed  by  vested  rights,  or  vested  wrongs, 
and  can  consult  the  interests  of  one  race, 
without  the  fear  of  doing  an  injustice  to  the 
other. 

1 have  never  been  insensible  to  the  force  of 
the  appeal  made  by  the  Southern  States, 
against  being  left  to  be  overwhelmed,  without 
relief,  escape,  or  outlet,  by  the  accumulating 
numbers  of  their  blacks.  To  that  appeal  of 
alarm  and  despair,  eloquent  in  the  genuine 
and  unmistakeable  tones  of  nature,  no  man  ' 
who  knows  the  true  condition  of  the  South, 
can  turn  a deaf,  or  reluctant  ear.  If  fraternal 
counsel  and  fraternal  aid  can  avail  anything  j 
in  presence  of  this  great  misfortune,  never  I 
was  there  a call  for  them  more  urgent,  mov- 
ing and  irresistible.  The  sun  in  all  his  cir- 
cuit does  not  shine  upon  a people,  over  whose 


future  hangs  a more  portentous  and  impenetra- 
ble gloom,  than  that  which  darkens  the  destiny 
of  the  South  and  throws  ominous  shadows 
even  upon  its  present  life.  What  seem  to  be 
its  cries  of  anger,  are,  to  the  appreciating  ear, 
cries  of  distress,  wrung  from  the  tost  and. 
distempered  fancies  of  suffering  and  disease. 

The  South  needs  outlets.  This  is  most  true. 
But  not  outlets  which  will  increase  the  vol- 
ume of  the  mischief;  not  outlets  which  will 
establish  new  sources  and  springs  of  the  fatal 
stream  ; not  outlets  which  will  carry  the  dis- 
ease to  new  regions  while  it  is  left  unmitiga- 
ted in  its  old  seats.  Some  things  may  be  di- 
luted by  being  diffused,  but  slavery  however 
scattered,  retains  everywhere  all  the  strength 
of  its  original  malignity.  Virginia  had  such 
an  outlet  in  Kentucky,  but  the  temporary  re- 
lief has  long  since  become  only  a duplication 
of  the  mischief.  Missouri,  in  its  turn,  instead 
of  being  a market  for  slaves,  will  soon  com- 
pete with  Virginia  and  Kentucky  in  breeding 
slaves.  If  the  policy  of  1854  is  persisted  in, 
this  breeding  ground  of  wretched  Africans 
will  stretch  uninterrupted  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  furnishing  to  the 
States  upon  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  a perennial 
supply,  and  securing  to  slavery  and  the  slave 
trade  an  expansion  in  time  and  space,  amaz- 
ing in  its  extent  and  inconceivable  in  its  con- 
sequences. 

The  South  needs  outlets.  This  is  most  true. 
But  outlets  not  merely,  or  mainly,  for  its 
blacks.  If  the  South  could  be  supposed  to 
be  absolutely  pent  up,  the  first  and  greatest 
danger  to  its  peculiar  social  organization 
would  come  from  the  side  of  the  whites,  upon 
the  great  mass  of  whom  that  organization 
bears  with  crushing  and  destructive  force. 
Revolutionary  outbreaks  are  common,  servile 
wars  are  rare,  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
The  slave  is  not  often  a rebel.  Negro  slavery 
has  been  perfectly  secure  in  the  West  India 
Islands  and  in  inter-tropical  South  America, 
under  a ratio  of  blacks  to  whites  many  fold 
greater  than  the  present  ratio  eveij  in  South 
Carolina.  It  fell  in  St.  Domingo,  not  from  a 
preponderance  of  the  blacks,  but  from  the  in- 
terference of  the  French  Assembly.  The 
slaveholder  fears  everybody,  but  it  is  the 
white  man,  and  not  the  black  man,  whom  he 
fears  and  has  reason  to  fear  as  his  first  enemy. 
The  legislation  of  all  the  Southern  States 
proves  it.  In  the  two  States  out  of  which 
this  District  was  formed,  the  legislative  power 
is  secured  to  the  slaveholders  as  against  the 
majority  of  the  whites,  by  constitutional 
gerrymanders.  In  most  of  the  Southern 
States,  the  power  to  touch  the  question  of 
slavery  is  taken  from  the  people  by  constitu- 
tional prohibitions.  This  is  particularly  true 
iu  those  cases  in  which  there  was  reason  to 
apprehend  popular  movements  to  get  rid  of 
slavery.  The  doctrine  of  allowing  the  peo- 
ple to  fashion  their  own  institutions,  which 
Southern  gentlemen  recommend  to  us  in  ref- 
erence to  Kansas,  they  expressly  repudiate  at 
home.  Nobody  knows  better  than  you  do, 
with  what  indignant  unanimity  they  would 
scout  it.  if  attempted  to  be  applied  here,  with- 


2 06 


in  wliat  is  left  of  the  ten  miles  square.  The 
doctrine  is  limited  to  Kansas,  and  even  there, 
the  perplexing  commentary  of  its  practical 
application,  so  contradicts  and  obscures  the 
text,  as  to  render  it  unintelligible. 

Of  1,260,982  free  persons  born  in  Virginia, 
and  living  in  1850  in  the  United  States,  388,- 
059  or  a fraction  short  of  31  per  cent,  lived 
out  of  Virginia.  Of  8,601,159  persons  born 
in  Ireland  and  living  in  1851,  the  number  of 
2,131,365,  or  a fraction  short  of  25  per  cent, 
lived  out  of  Ireland.  (See  note.)  The  exodus 
of  the  Irish  lias  astonished  the  world,  and  al- 
though manifestly  attributable  in  part  to 
cramped  limits  and  crowded  population,  is 
justly  regarded  as  striking  evidence  of  British 
tyranny  and  misrule.  Yet  as  proved  by  the 
greater  proportion  Of  free  persons  who  have 
fled  from  Virginia,  the  oppressions  of  the 
slave  system  are  more  unendurable,  than  all 
the  wrongs  which  Ireland  has  suffered  under 
a government  established  by  conquest  and 
maintained  by  force  against  the  antagonisms 
of  religion  and  race.  Certainly,  this  amazing 
emigration  from  Virginia  is  not  due  to  com- 
pressed limits,  or  exhausted  physical  resources. 
That  State  abounds  in  everything  except  peo- 
ple. Virginia  is  decrepid  in  the  midst  of 
vigorous  nature,  poor  in  the  midst  of  over- 
flowing wealth, 

“ Maynas  inter  opes  inops? 

No  fairer  or  ampler  heritage,  was  ever  wast- 
ed and  impoverished  by  prodigal  possessors. 

I have  spoken  lirst  of  Virginia,  because  she 
is  your  immediate  neighbor,  but  if  you  turn 
to  the  Carolinas,  you  will  find  that  the  same 
terrible  scourge  which  has  driven  off"  31  per 
cent,  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  has  driven  off 
34  per  cent,  of  the  free  people  of  North  Caro- 
lina, and  in  South  Carolina,  where  the  devel- 
opment of  the  slave  system  is  most  complete, 
it  has  driven  off  42  per  cent,  of  the  free  peo- 
ple. The  new  slave  States  will,  in  their  turn, 
yield  to  the  same  pressure  which  has  already 
depopulated  the  old. 

If  the  egress  of  people,  white  and  black, 
from  Virginia,  could  be  supposed  to  be  abso- 
lutely prevented,  it  seems  to  me  impossible 
that  the  stability  of  the  social  organization 
could  be  maintained  against  the  accumulating 
numbers  of  ignorant,  impoverished  and  bru- 
talized whites.  With  the  courage  and  spirit 
of  freemen,  but  without  the  training  and  dis- 
cipline and  reflection  essential  to  the  perma- 
nent existence  of  freedom,  they  have  the  pre- 
cise characteristics  to  render  them  fitting  and 
dangerous  instruments  of  revolutionary  lead- 
ers. In  the  violent  subjugation  of  Kansas, 
this  class  of  people  in  Missouri  has  been  used 
by  and  for  the  slaveholders,  but  under  other 
circumstances  it  may  be  used  against  them. 
A brute  force  like  this,  at  once  savage,  blind 
and  powerful,  is  a threatening  and  ominous 
element  iu  the  composition  of  a political  com- 


munity. It  is  a subterranean  fire,  whose  ex- 
plosion may  at  any  moment  overturn  the 
whole  edifice  of  society. 

I repeat,  therefore,  that  the  South  needs  out- 
lets, not  merely  or  mainly  for  its  blacks,  but 
is  vitally  interested  in  the  preservation  of  free 
territories,  as  places  of  refuge  for  its  whites, 
whose  accumulation  at  home,  with  all  the  in- 
vincible circumstances  and  causes  of  social 
degradation  which  surround  them  there,  por- 
tends the  gravest  dangers. 

In  every  point  of  view,  the  northern  direc- 
tion which  it  w as  the  sole  object  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  to  give  to  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery,  ought  to  provoke  resist- 
ance. It  is  an  alarming  innovation  upon  old 
and  established  principles.  It  will  bring  slave 
labor  into  more  immediate  and  active  compe- 
tition with  free  labor.  It  will  augment  the 
numbers  of  the  black  race,  and  render  the 
peaceful  extinction  of  slavery  forever  impossi- 
ble. It  is  injurious  to  both  sections  of  the 
Union  and  to  both  the  races  which  inhabit  it. 

It  provokes  indignation  to  reflect  that  such 
a measure,  big  with  incalculable  consequences 
affecting  the  destinies  of  a continent  through 
indefinite  ages,  was  precipitated  upon  us  with- 
out warning,  ^nd  consummated  by  treachery 
to  the  free  States  on  the  part  of  individuals, 
who  command  no  respect,  either  by  their 
talents  or  their  characters,  and  who  had  no 
pretensions  to  places  which  they  occupied  only 
through  the  inattention  of  the  country.  Let 
it  console  us  to  know  that  the  mischief  is  not 
yet  irremediable,  and  that  it  will  only  become 
so,  by  the  deliberate  sanction  of  those  wrho 
are  to  be  affected  by  it. 


Note. — The  total  emigration  from  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  during  a period  of  twenty-six  years, 
from  1825  to  1851,  assuming  that  one  hundred  thou- 
sand came  to  the  United  States  via  the  British 
North  American  colonies,  was  distributed  as  fol- 
lows :■ — 

To  the  United  States 1,636,467 

To  British  colonies  and  other  places 987^603 

As  there  were  found  living  in  1850,  in  the  United 
States,  1,340,812  persons  bom  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  it  may  be  assumed  that  there  were  then  in 
“ British  colonies  and  other  places  ” 807,000  persons 
born  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Of  262,839  persons  born  in  Great  Britain  and  Ire. 
land,  found  in  Upper  Canada  in  1818,  it  was  ascer- 
tained by  a census  that  54  per  cent,  were  born  in 
Ireland.  If  this  proportion  be  assumed  for  the  whole 
807,000  persons  in  me  “British  Colonies  and  other 
pl  aces,”  it  would  give  435,780  as  the  number  born 
in  Ireland.  This  is,  however,  probably  too  large 
a proportion,  as  the  per  centage  of  Irish  born  is 
loss  among  the  emigrants  to  Australia,  than  among 
the  emigrants  to  the  Britisli  North  American  Colo- 
nies. We  have  thus  the  following  results  : — 
Whole  number  of  Irish  born  living  March, 

1851 8,607,159 

Irish  born  in  Great  Britain,  per  census  of 

March,  1851 733,835 

Irish  born  in  U.  States  per  census  of  1850.  961,719 

Irish  born  in  “ Britisli  colonies  and  other 

places” 435,780 

Irish  born  living  in  Ireland,  March,  1851..  6,475.794 


